Police arrest SA murder husband

A British newlywed accused of paying to have his bride killed on their honeymoon in South Africa has been arrested under a South African warrant.

Shrien Dewani, whose wife Anni was murdered last month as they visited a South African township, was held on Tuesday night on suspicion of conspiring to murder his wife, the Metropolitan Police said.

The 30-year-old businessman from Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, was accused of ordering her death by taxi driver Zola Tongo as he was sentenced for his part in the killing in a South African court. The Dewani family described the allegation as “ludicrous”.

Mr Dewani surrendered himself at a police station in Bristol, the Met Police said. The force said he was arrested under a Provisional Arrest Warrant at the request of the South African authorities on suspicion of conspiring to murder his 28-year-old wife.

The businessman will appear from custody at City of Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The family of a British man accused of paying to have his new wife murdered on honeymoon in South Africa has dismissed the claims as “totally ludicrous”.

Taxi driver Zola Tongo said Shrien Dewani, 31, offered £1,300 for the killing of 28-year-old Anni, just hours after the couple arrived in the country.

Mrs Dewani was shot dead by gunmen a day later as the pair were driven through the impoverished Gugulethu township in Cape Town.

Tongo’s dramatic allegation formed part of a plea agreement drawn up with prosecutors at Cape High Court, where he was jailed for 18 years for his part in the killing on November 13.

Mr Dewani has always denied any involvement in his wife’s death and his spokesman Max Clifford described the accusations as the latest in a string of false allegations against him.